A Daring Liaison(56)

Dozens of tables, perhaps more, stood at intervals throughout the room, and players were gathered around every one of them. Some tables appeared to be for cards, some for dice, and yet another held a wheel. Heavy velvet draperies shielded alcoves set into the walls, and while she watched, a couple entered one and a moment later, the drape closed. Whatever could be the purpose of that?

For Georgiana, who’d only played casual cribbage with her aunt or whist with friends, the scene was fascinating. And quite exciting. She waited while Charles busied himself with a man in a booth, exchanging his chit from Biddle for counters to gamble.

When he returned to her, he took her arm and led her toward the tables. “What game do you prefer, Georgiana?”

“I’ve only learned whist and cribbage. Oh, and backgammon.”

Charles laughed. “None of that here. The games you played were for society. There is nothing social about Belmonde’s. Gambling is serious business.”

“But everyone seems so polite. I do not hear any quarrelling or see anyone doing anything...déclassé.”

“Look higher and closer, my dear.”

She did. Above them, a young man Georgiana could have sworn she had danced with last year stood behind a woman dressed in vivid green. One of his arms wrapped around her middle holding her back against him and the other lingered scandalously near to her breasts. Would he fondle the woman for all to see? She looked away, feeling terribly gauche in such worldly company.

Charles leaned near to her ear. “Do you begin to see what I meant about civil company, Georgiana?”

She nodded. A shout of laughter went up at a table across the room, and a croupier pushed a pile of counters toward a woman dressed in elegant cerulean blue. When the woman turned to speak to the man beside her, Georgiana recognized her as a countess much respected in the ton. She was a widow, the mother of three and a popular hostess. Then she looked at another woman, and another. They were accompanied by men, too, and were also women she’d met at soirees and balls.

Ah, these were mature women who had earned the right to do as they please. Women whose reputations no longer needed guarding. Women capable of weathering a storm of gossip. Was that why Charles had dared bring her here? That, twice widowed and therefore obviously not virgin, she did not need to guard herself as unmarried women do? Or was it that Georgiana Huffington, whispered to be a murderess, could withstand so small a scandal as gambling?

Suddenly, his motives were important to her. “Charles, why did you really bring me here?”

He stopped and turned to her. “Someone tried to kill me today, Georgiana, and it wasn’t the person I was trying to provoke. Between my enemies and yours, death is a breath away. I did not feel like sitting at a polite dinner discussing the weather, politics or the latest on dit regarding this duke or that marquis. I wanted to do something to bring an end to this. To flaunt our relationship wherever it might do the most good. To be seen and noted. Certainly not at a family dinner party. We must flush our quarry out of hiding as soon as possible. We may not have much time left. You may not have much time.”

His words chilled her. “Do you think he will now try to kill me?”

“Not unless our culprit is Walter Foxworthy.”

“Why?”

“Because your death would solve his problems. If his suit to become your conservator fails, he loses everything. But with you dead, he is the heir to the Betman fortune unless you conceive. Odd coincidence, is it not, that your husbands have died before they could impregnate you?” Charles smiled and cupped her cheek as he leaned closer. “But no, that is not my concern. If Foxworthy wanted you dead, he’d have made an attempt when you were still unprotected in Kent. If he merely wanted to prevent a future heir, well then, his target would be your husband. If there is anything you’ve forgotten to mention, Georgie, anything you’ve withheld, now would be a good time to tell me. Now, before the authorities close in.”

She ignored his question for one of her own. “What is your concern, Charles?”

“That you could be arrested.” He led her to a table where men were casting dice. He leaned close again. “That I could be killed. That time will slip away from us, Georgie. We haven’t a moment to spare.”

His sense of urgency caught her. “Cease, Charles. Take me home at once. Disassociate yourself from me. I won’t be the cause of your death.”

“You care what happens to me? I thought you disliked me.”

“I’ve never disliked you.”